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What a difference a brain makes…

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is “The Most Influential Man in the World,” according to Esquire magazine. The magazine has designated him as “the most powerful agent of change in the world” despite his lack of electoral standing and the fact he was laid low by a heart attack ahead of last year’s presidential election. The magazine highlights Clinton’s accomplishments in its December issue, which goes on newsstands on Thursday, profiling the world’s “Best and Brightest” men and women. Since leaving office, Clinton has been so active that his post-presidency amounts to “a third term” for the Democrat who held the White House from 1992 to 2000, the magazine said. He has tackled global issues from AIDS, poverty and global warming to the recovery from last December’s Indian Ocean tsunami.

Esquire editor David Granger argued that Clinton was poised to become “something like a president of the world or at least a president of the world’s non-governmental organizations.”

President Bush feels betrayed by several of his most senior aides and advisors and has severely restricted access to the Oval Office, INSIGHT magazine claims in a new report.

The president?s reclusiveness in the face of relentless public scrutiny of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and White House leaks regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame has become so extreme that Mr. Bush has also reduced contact with his father, former President George H.W. Bush, administration sources said on the condition of anonymity.

?The atmosphere in the Oval Office has become unbearable,? a source said. ?Even the family is split.?

Sources close to the White House say that Mr. Bush has become isolated and feels betrayed by key officials in the wake of plunging domestic support, the continued insurgency in Iraq and the CIA-leak investigation that has resulted in the indictment and resignation of Lewis ?Scooter? Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney?s former chief of staff.

The sources said Mr. Bush maintains daily contact with only four people: first lady Laura Bush, his mother, Barbara Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes. The sources also say that Mr. Bush has stopped talking with his father, except on family occasions.